Chapter 11

It was already very late at night, and the traffic outside the window gradually thinned out, and the cars seemed to be driving towards the outer ring.

Xu Zhi became a little nervous and couldn't help but turn around and ask him: "Where are you going?"

He didn't even raise his eyes and said half-jokingly: "I'll sell you."

Xu Zhi's heart skipped a beat, and there was another look of displeasure on his face. I feel feverish consciously, and I don’t know if I really drank too much.

She held her face in her hands and felt that her heart was beating very fast and her heart rate was not normal.

The scenery along the way became more and more unfamiliar, until we reached the mountain. The woods were dark at night, and the wind was blowing and swaying, and there were groups of dark shadows, as if they were hiding unknown beasts.

Xu Zhi clenched the hand on his knee, feeling a little scared.

Seeming to see her nervousness, he finally said compassionately: "Don't be afraid, I won't do anything to you."

This sounded like a promise, but Xu Zhi always felt like a joke.

She had never been so nervous.

Speaking of which, in fact, they are not very familiar.

Ten minutes later, the car finally reached the top of the mountain and stopped in front of a secluded private hotel. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Xu Zhi wouldn't have known there was such a private house on the canal. It looks very low-key from the outside. The light gray high walls and fences surround the house so tightly that no one can peek inside.

A sentry came over to question him, and the driver lowered the window and shouted coldly: "Mr. Fei is in the car, what else are you checking?"

The plainclothes guard looked back, his heart trembled, and he hurriedly stepped away and saluted.

Xu Zhi got out of the car, put on his suit and followed him into the seemingly huge house.

The largest garden she had ever seen before was Yao Yanlan's hometown in Suzhou, a Su-style garden in the five-layer courtyard. But the garden in this house was no smaller than that one. There were greenery and vegetation all the way, with winding paths and water. The sound was gurgling, and the floor lamp buried in the cobblestones emitted a warm yellow light, dotting the quiet courtyard at night.

Passing through the deep atrium of the courtyard, Xu Zhi finally appeared in front of a three-story Chinese-style villa. There was a large swimming pool in front of the door, and there were stairs connecting to the terrace on the second floor. The water was sparkling under the moonlight, blown by the night breeze. There were ripples going round and round.

"This is where you usually live?" she asked him.

"No." He unlocked the door with his fingerprint, pushed it open, and turned back to motion for her to go forward.

Xu Zhi thought about it. The location of this house is quite remote. How inconvenient is it to commute to and from work? That's——

"The place where the golden house hides its beauty?" She whispered, looking up at him.

He laughed and pushed the door open without explaining.

After following him upstairs, Xu Zhi found out that he was here to look for documents. When he reached the second floor, he left her and went to the study.

Xu Zhi was sitting alone on the guest sofa drinking tea, sobered up by the wine.

I really think too much, what kind of person is this person with so many beauties posted on his head, who would be interested in someone like her?

But in retrospect, I feel that he may not have been completely unintentional towards me.

She was in a state of confusion and confusion.

"Sorry for the long wait." About half an hour later, he came out of the study with the document and handed it to Shen Qian.

Xu Zhi stood up quickly: "It's okay."

He smiled, raised his hand and lowered it slightly: "Sit."

Xu Zhi sat down with a red face, but felt that he really couldn't get on the stage.

He did not greet her again, but lowered his head and flicked a cigarette. However, he hesitated for a while when lighting the cigarette and asked her, "Do you mind?"

Xu Zhi said, "No."

He pressed the igniter, and the sudden firelight illuminated his stern face, without a smile.

Xu Zhi didn't know what he wanted to do, she just felt that he looked a little cold at this moment.

But this indifference is not because of anything else, but more like thinking and pondering.

During the silence, neither of them spoke. The cigarette burning at his fingertips burned out silently, and there was a hint of burning smoke in the air.

She was very uneasy: "Mr. Fei..."

This was the second time she called him tonight, and her voice was somewhat unstable.

Fei Nanzhou put half a cigarette on the ashtray and said in a gentler tone: "Well, you tell me."

Xu Zhi couldn't say anything.

She soon realized, why did she say that? He rarely seems to control the conversation by stating his intentions directly.

But what was she going to say?

Perhaps the way she lowered her head caused him to misunderstand. He asked her with a smile: "Are you still sad?"

Xu Zhi was stunned for a moment, shook his head, and said calmly: "Not really...just a little frustrated, forget it. You don't understand. The only job for a person like you is to dump a woman, right?"

He looked at her helplessly and wanted to say something, but then simply shut up.

——I'm too lazy to argue with her.

"I just feel that I have failed in managing relationships," she said in frustration.

"It's not necessarily your problem. Both parties are responsible for things like relationships."

Xu Zhi looked at him, as if seeking some kind of affirmation: "Really?"

He nodded: "Sometimes, a failed relationship may not be a fault. Bad things, inappropriate people, it would be better to separate as soon as possible to save time and energy."

"After all, if the old ones don't go away, the new ones won't come back." After saying the last sentence, he gave her a meaningful look.

Xu Zhi felt nervous at this sight, as if the organs in his chest were shaking.

But he withdrew as soon as he struck, no longer interested in fighting, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" She couldn't hold her breath.

When I asked the question, I felt as if I had broken some kind of tacit understanding, which was a bit embarrassing.

But it was too late to take it back now.

He smiled softly in the darkness and did not answer the question: "Let's go, I will take you to a place."

In this strange place, Xu Zhi had no choice but to get up and follow him.

He took her not elsewhere, but to the highest point of the manor. Xu Zhi stood on the roof and looked into the distance, only to realize that not far away was Yuquan Mountain, surrounded by mountains and rivers, with many peaks and mountains, and further away were the dim lights of the city center. The March spring breeze wasn't too cold on my face, but it still had a chill.

Xu Zhi hugged his knees and raised his head. In the cold weather, he was only wearing a shirt, a white shirt and black trousers. The hem of his clothes was completely hidden in the metal belt. His figure was tall and straight, as if he was independent.

Although he didn't speak and just stood in the corner so casually, Xu Zhi could already feel the overwhelming oppression.

"Do you like it?" he asked an innocuous question.

Xu Zhi nodded: "The scenery is nice."

Fei Nanzhou smiled and said: "But the view here is not very good, the view over there is better." He pointed to the tall tower in the dense forest in the distance, "I will take you when I have time Go boating on Kunming Lake. The scenery in the evening is amazing. By the way, can you row?”

“Yes, yes.”

He was surprised. Looking at her, it seemed that he didn't expect her to do this.

Xu Zhi said: "My hometown is in a water town. When I was a child, I went rowing with my mother when I went to see my grandmother. The road would be shorter. But now that the bridge has been built, there are very few opportunities for rowing."

He nodded, looking uninterested.

Apparently, there is not much interest in this topic.

The night wind felt a little cold on his face, and Xu Zhi shrank his shoulders again.

When he saw it, he said "Sorry" and turned around to get some clothes for her.

The night wind made her wake up a little, and her eyes couldn't help but fall on him again, feeling incredible.

"What are you looking at?" His voice was low.

Xu Zhi: "...You drink as much as me, so why aren't you blushing at all?"

"What do you think?" He brought the topic back.

A pair of bottomless black eyes seemed to be smiling.

Xu Zhi felt hot all over when he saw him and stumbled: "...Are you thick-skinned?"

Oh my God, what did she say?

He frowned, as if he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he didn't care about her unscrupulous words. He only asked her why she was so afraid of Shang Xiuping. Wasn't he her senior brother?

Xu Zhi pursed her lips and said, "He is the boss, and I am a worker."

"Aren't you a partnership?"

"My investment is very small, almost nothing," she said sheepishly.

"Then what you said is wrong." He looked at her firmly and said, "No matter how much you vote, you have voted, then you are partners, and he is not qualified to lecture you like that."

His words were both for her and with a hint of something. She was pleased with the idea of ​​supporting her, but also a little embarrassed. She turned her eyes away and did not respond.

At that time, I didn't realize that he also had the intention of provoking. He was determined to win Kunda, and the more chaos inside, the better.

But she was really short-sighted and didn't realize it at all.

If she had been able to understand his intentions and understand his strategic intentions at that time, she might have become his "imperial envoy" and be on par with Shang Xiu. However, she didn't think much about it.

In other words, she has always trusted him quite a bit, and some of the disagreements were superficial and she had never taken it into her heart.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit cold, she hurriedly tried to make amends: "Thank you anyway for saving me and encouraging me again and again."

This was nothing when she thought about it in her heart, but when she said it she felt particularly ambiguous.

Unknowingly, the two of them were so close, and she was completely enveloped and restrained by his quiet fragrance mixed with the dark wood.

Xu Zhi lowered his head and could not speak any more.

But she heard him suddenly chuckle: "Then what do you want in return?"

The tone was neither salty nor bland, which could be understood as teasing her, but it didn't seem that simple.

The string in Xu Zhi's heart tightened again, and Qiqi Aiai said: "I...I don't know."

He turned his head and stared at her, his smile was not so obvious, he just smiled without opening his mouth.

Xu Zhi became even more nervous, and it took him a long time to speak: "Just tell me, I will give it to you if I can afford it."

Now it was his turn to be silent. He lowered his eyes slightly, and his quiet look was very much like he had been smoking just now. He looked like he was pondering.

The more this happened, the more uneasy she became, and she vaguely seemed to understand what he wanted her to pay back.

When their eyes met, Fei Nanzhou didn't know how to start. He looked at her for a long time and suddenly smiled: "Forget it, I'm just kidding you, don't mind."

Xu Zhi couldn't tell whether he was relieved or not. Yes, it seems faintly a little bit lost.

She was startled herself.

There was another long moment of silence, and the atmosphere was really awkward.

He seemed to find it difficult to end the situation, so he stood up and said, "It's very late, let's go and rest."

Xu Zhi stood up after him and went to the guest room on the top floor.

He was about to leave, but when he saw her still sitting on the bed and looking at her, he stopped and laughed: "Do you recognize the bed?" Xu Zhi

nodded, then shook his head: "...can you stay with me? ?”

Saying this in this situation is like an invitation.

He looked at her: "Are you sure?"

Xu Zhi was not sure whether he smiled at that moment, his face was hot, and he lowered his head and remained silent.

"Go to rest early." He smiled silently and closed the door for her.

-

Her life seems to be the same as before, but it seems to be very different.

For example, he would sometimes like her Moments, even if she posted some boring posts, or take the initiative to chat with her.

Sometimes Xu Zhi couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Fei, are you very free?"

Once she actually asked a similar question.

He pondered there for a while and replied to her: "I don't have to be like a desperate Saburo all the time, right?" I also need to rest and have my own entertainment. ]

She felt embarrassed and responded to him with three silly emoticons.

Fei Nanzhou actually sent her an emoticon back.

Xu Zhi was shocked. She didn't expect that he would send emoticons.

After a while, I realized that his emoticon looked familiar: [Okay, you steal my emoticon? ! ]

[This is called 'borrowing'. ]

She replied to him with three "pouts".

Fei Nanzhou smiled and shook his head helplessly.

In a few days, Xu Zhi was going to City B for investigation. When he got there, he found that a mudslide had occurred in the town.

She and several researchers were soaked in the rain and trapped in the town.

Fortunately, the communication was restored after only two days.

She stayed in a musty-smelling hotel for two days and almost went crazy. She posted a photo of moldy spots on the corner to her WeChat Moments.

After a while, the phone rang.

She answered the call without thinking much: "Hello -"

"It's me." Fei Nanzhou smiled on the other end.

Xu Zhi stood up straight subconsciously: "Mr. Fei, why are you..."

She really didn't expect that he would actually call her.

"I saw your post on Moments. Are you in..." He seemed to be confirming the address, "Where is Tonghua County?"

"Yeah." At that moment, she seemed to have found the child whose parents were complaining, and couldn't help but say , "The conditions are super bad, it rains and thunders, and the room is moldy."

"Thank you." He clamped the phone into the crook of his neck on the other side, closed the file and handed it to the secretary, and said with relief, "I read it The weather forecast says things will be fine in two days."

"Yeah."

She felt comforted and her voice was soft.

Fei Nanzhou was silent there for a while.

I used to think her voice was nice, soft and crisp, crisp and sweet, and seemed to have a bit of a coquettish tone through the microphone.

"What's wrong?" Xu Zhi said uneasily.

"Nothing." He smiled nonchalantly and said, "I'm in Nande. If you have time, can we come out to have dinner together tomorrow?"

Only then did Xu Zhi realize that he was only a few kilometers away from her.

What fate?

She readily agreed: "I'll go find you."

"I'll send someone to pick you up." He smiled.

I don't know if it was her imagination, but that deep laughter was inexplicably endearing.

She stood there blankly holding her cell phone, looking at the wall for a long time.

-It

turned out to be sunny the next day, earlier than he predicted.

They met on the agreed street, and he took her to a Hangzhou restaurant he often went to.

They talked a lot about what happened recently. Xu Zhi kept talking to him about the bad things she had encountered in the county these days. When she talked about the investigation, no one cooperated with her at all. The company kept urging her. I'm almost bored to death.

After talking a lot, I felt that I had talked too much, so I looked at him carefully: "Am I talking too much?"

"No, it's quite interesting. Come on, keep talking to me, I'm quite interested." He Smiling generously, he raised his hand to fill the glass for her.

The two of them actually drank Erguotou on such a street.

Before this, Xu Zhi couldn't even think about it.

People like him, and Erguotou? It’s such a mismatch.

She didn't know how long she had been drinking, but the night wind made her cheeks red and hot. She held her face in her hands, looked at him with big watery eyes, and asked, "Mr. Fei, thank you for inviting me to dinner."

"Thank me?" He lowered his eyes and smiled, "No, I should be the one thanking you. Xu Zhi

opened her eyes slightly and heard what he said next: "Thank you for eating with me."

He raised his eyes and smiled.

She was stunned for a moment and then smiled.